Both the prosecution and defence have lodged appeals in the case of the Italian captain convicted over the 2012 shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner off the Tuscan coast.

An Italian court in February this year convicted Francesco Schettino of the manslaughter deaths of 32 passengers and crew members, of causing the shipwreck by colliding with a reef near tiny Giglio island and of abandoning the capsized vessel with people still aboard.

The court sentenced him to 16 years in prison. Prosecutors sought 26 years.

While the prosecutors hope a Florence appeals court will stiffen the sentence, defence lawyer Saverio Senese said he will argue that the court did not correctly evaluate evidence in Schettino's favour.

Schettino is free pending appeals. The appeal trial is likely to start in 2016.